April 28-May 2

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Wednesday is our field trip to Hannaford for their guiding stars tour!  Please remember to turn in your child’s permission slip by TOMORROW!  Second notices went home in your child’s folder today.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thursday afternoon, we will be hosting Pablo Paredes!  Here is an excerpt from his poster:

“Pablo Paredes Goche is a ceramic artist from Tlaquepaque, Mexico. He comes from a family of artisans famous for their traditional figures depicting Mexican celebrations and village life. The region where he lives, in the state of Jalisco, is known for a variety of traditional ceramics that are produced using the techniques passed down from generations within craft families.

Pablo will be traveling with his wife Enriqueta, and together they will be demonstrating the techniques used to create the ancient art of the Olmec and Aztec civilizations. Their lecture and demonstration follows the progress of ceramic sculpture from ancient times to present day folk art traditions. “

The second grade students from Memorial School will be traveling down to Russell for this special event as well.  We will enjoy lunch and recess together!  It will be a group opportunity for us to mingle with some friends that we will see at Dunn School next year.  

Team Blowey’s First Annual Poetry Night is this Thursday!  Please make your best efforts to be there.    The event will be from 5:30-6:30.  Students are asked to wear black shirts and jeans to honor the beatnik culture in which poetry readings at small coffee shops were popular.   Snacks and drinks will be served from 5:15-5:30.   We hope to see you there!

If you are willing and able to donate any snacks, juice, or water for our Poetry Night, it would be greatly appreciated!  Please remember, no strawberries, pineapples, or kiwis should be included.  It would be great if we could also have one dairy and/or gluten free option!  If you would like to contribute, please contact me by Wednesday morning with what you would like to bring in.

Spring break homework packets are due on Thursday!  Please remind your child to put it in their backpack on Wednesday evening.

This week in...

Phonics:  We are working with the schwa sound (uh sound).  Here are our focus words:  alone, agree, ago, above, again, awake, away, idea, alike, and comma.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are vast, oceans, areas, voyage, and planet.  We’ll define these words and build connections to them.  Then, we’ll search for them in the short stories “Continents and Oceans” and “Record Holders!”.

Comprehension:  We will be working on identifying the main idea and supporting details.  The main idea of a story is what a story is mostly about.  The supporting details give us more information about the main idea.  We’ll practice this skill while we read Columbus Explores New Lands.  

Writing:  This week we are wrapping up our poetry unit and beginning our next big writing project... our animal research projects!  Later this week, students will have the chance to explore lots of books about all different kinds of animals.  From there, they will make a list of their top three choices.  One of those choices will become the animal that they study.  They will be looking for information such as:

-Is your animal a mammal, fish, amphibian, insect, reptile, or a fish?  

-What does it look like?  What are some of its defining characteristics?

-Is your animal a herbivore, carnivore, or omnivore?  What exactly makes                  up your animal’s diet?

-Where does your animal lives?  What is their habitat like?

-What are some interesting facts about your animal?

To kick off this project, we will begin studying penguins together as a class.

Grammar:  We will be working with possessive pronouns.  A possessive pronoun shows who or what has something.  Here are some examples:  my, her, his, your, and our.

Math:  We will continue our math flexible groups for adding and subtracting within 100 with a focus on word problems.  On the days that we don’t switch, we will also continue our work with our math facts, time, and money.  This week, we have also introduced our measurement unit.  To get our brains fired up, we talked about what we know about measurement (i.e. units of measure we know, tools we might use, etc.).  Then, we practiced measuring with meatballs (a nonstandard unit) as a review from our first grade measurement standards.  Then, we walked around the room to find things that were longer, shorter, or the same as our craft sticks to practice making comparisons based on measurement.  Finally, we sorted objects by what we would measure them with:  inches, feet, or yards.  For example, we would measure a flower in inches but we would measure a tree in yards. 

Science:  We will finish up our cloud observations this week as well as talking about some tools that we use to track weather.  Here are some examples:  thermometer, barometer, wine vane, rain gauge, etc.  Later, we will actually create some of these weather tools to track the weather for one week at Russell School.  

We'll also learn about healthy choices on our field trip to Hannaford this week!  Be sure to ask your child what they learned about the guiding stars on Wednesday!

Scholastic News:  This week, we will be reading about fireflies!  We’ll learn how they make their light, how they communicate, and how they send a warning!  Then, we’ll answer some questions about the firefly life cycle based on a chart.

April 14-17

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS

CALLING ALL RECYCLED GOODS!    We will be needing some recyclable items from your home for a project we will be doing this week.  Please send in one or more of the following items: 

 small snack boxes, plastic lids (shaving gel lids, clorox wipe lids, plastic jar lids, etc) paper or plastic cups.

Please send these items in with your child by Wednesday!  A reminder notice will be going home with students tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning we will be heading to a special presentation!  Leo from EcoMaine will join the second grade.  His presentation will focus on things we can do to help planet Earth and boost awareness and excitement for Earth Day!

Wednedsay night from 5:30-7:00 is the second annual literacy night!  All families needed to pre-register for the event.  A certain someone might be coming to the event.  Hope to see you there!

BE ON THE LOOKOUT!   A permission slip will be coming your way tomorrow afternoon as well.  Our next field trip will be to Hannaford.  We will be taking their Guiding Stars Tour as a part of our ICARE and healthy choices curriculum.  We will not be needing any chaperones for this particular trip.

SAVE THE DATE!  On may 1, 2014 (it’s a Thursday!), Team Blowey will be hosting it’s first annual Poetry Night!  More information and a formal invitation will follow soon.

This week in...

Phonics:  We are studying the dipthong oi and oy.  Here are our focus words:  soil, broil, mosit, point, boil, oil, toy, joy, soy, and royal.  

Vocabulary:  Here are our new focus words:  gathered, agreed, randomly, jabbing, and signal.  We’ll define these words and build relationships with them to help us remember them better.  Then, we’ll search for them in the short play called Why Sun and Moon Live in the SkY.

Comprehension:  This week, we will focus on problem and solution.  The problem is something the characters want to change, fix, or find out.  The solution is what solves the problem.  We will be practicing this skill while we read the play called Pushing Up the Sky by Joseph Bruchac.

Writing:  This week, we will finish up our poetry books.  First, we’ll write haikus.  Haikus are a form of Japanese poetry that follows a specific pattern.  It is made up of three lines.  The first and third lines both have five syllables.  The second line has seven.  Here is an example:

Summer is the best

With blue skies and a bright sun

Smiling everyday

The other kind of poem we will write is a concrete poem.  Concrete poems are poems where the words literally take on the shape of the subject.  These poems do not have to rhyme.  

Finally, our books will end with an “About the Author” page where Team Blowey will write their names, age, and where they live.  They will also include three of their hobbies.

Math:  Our flexible groups for adding and subtracting within 100 with a focus on word problems will continue this week.  Remember to use the strategy sheet that I sent home when you are helping your child with their homework.  Those are the strategies that are developmentally appropriate and are the strategies the students will be assessed on.

Science:  Today we read The Cloud Book by Tomie de Paola.  We learned about all different kinds of clouds and how different clouds can mean different kinds of weather will be coming.  For this week, students will be keeping track of the clouds and writing predictions for what weather they think will be coming.  Today, we observed cirrostratus clouds.  These kinds of clouds usually mean that moist weather will be here soon.  We might see drizzle, showers, or rain within the next 24 hours or so.  

Earth Day Fun:  Earth day is on April 22.  To help us look ahead to this day, we will be doing two different activities.  First, we will be reading The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.  We’ll create our very own truffula trees and take pictures with a lorax mustache to display with our Earth Day promises that we will be writing.  We will also be using your recycled goods that you send in to create our very own litterbugs!  We’ll take something that could have been litter and recycle it into a fun and unique bug that will display our friendly reminder:  “Please don’t be a litterbug!”

April 7-11

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

This Wednesday is an early release day!  Please plan accordingly!

Homework packets are due on THURSDAY!  Please remind your child to put it in their backpack on Wednesday evening.   Also, please remind your child to check off the ways that they are practicing at home on the cover page of their homework.  I like to see how Team Blowey is practicing!

Spring Pictures are on Thursday!

Literacy Night is coming up!  Remember to send in the registration paper with your child if you plan on attending.  All students must register prior to the event.  A little birdie told me Team Blowey might see someone they recognize.  Could it be Miss Blowey or could it be Miss Frizzle?  Come to Literacy Night and find out!   It will be on Wednesday, April 16 from 5:30-7:00.

THIS WEEK IN...

Phonics:  We are studying the dipthong sound with the spelling patterns /ou/ and /ow/.  Here are our focus words:  clown, growl, howl, brown, crown, round, loud, cloud, house, and sound.

Vocabulary:  Here are our new words:  lengthy, burrow, ranger, warning, distant, and beyond.  We will define these words and build connections with them.  Then, we will search for them in the short story called The Coatis of the Sonora Desert by Nya Taylor.

Comprehension:  This week, we will begin looking at author’s purpose!  That means we are studying why the author might have written the story that we are reading.  We’ll be using the acronym P.I.E. to help us with this.  Did the author write to PERSUADE us to think what they think, want what they want, or feel how they feel?  Did the author write to INFORM us or teach us about something?  Did the author write to ENTERTAIN us?
We’ll do this when we read the story Dig, Wait, Listen:  A Desert Toad’s Tale by April Pulley Sayre.

Grammar:  We will talk about personal pronouns.  These are words that take place of a noun or multiple nouns.  It must agree in number with the noun that it replaces.  For example, we might replace “Bobby” with “he”.  Or we might replace “Sam and Sandy” with “they”.

Writing:  We will introduce three new poems this week!  First, we’ll be writing an acrostic poem.  An acrostic poem has a topic idea running down the left side of the poem.  The words that go across the poem describes the topic.  Next, we’ll write a cinquain poem.  A cinquain poem is a five line poem that follows a specific pattern.  Here is the pattern:  

Line 1:  subject
Line 2:  two adjectives to describe the subject
Line 3:  three verbs to describe the subject
Line 4:  Four words or a complete sentence describing a feeling about the subject
Line 5:  Synonym to rename the subject

Last, we’ll write sensory poems.  A sensory poem is a poem that describes an emotion or feeling by using similes to describe each of your five senses.  

Math:  We will continue to switch for adding and subtracting within 100 with a focus on word problems.  We will also continue to work on our year long standards:  time, money, and math facts.  

Read Aloud:  We are finishing up Being Teddy Roosevelt and then we will begin reading some poetry from Shel Silverstein!

Early Release Day Project:  Now that we have begun our weather unit, we will head over to the Land of Chewandswallow!  We’ll be reading the beloved tale of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  Then, we will use that wacky story to inspire our very own “Cloudy with a Chance of...” stories.  We’ll also create a meteorologist craft to hold our creative stories.  These will be on display in the hallway once they are finished.